The first project is for a widget that allows the user to perform searches through the Bing search engine.

Its code shows how many widgets’ common features can be implemented, including:

• integrate a public REST API
• retrieve and show dynamic data from network
• detect and adapt to different screen resolutions
• handle touch and key-based user interaction
• show tabbed views
• download dynamic code updates and new versions of the widget

The second widget is a configurable RSS reader supporting multiple RSS feeds at once. The widget is easily adaptable to different needs, where retrieval and displaying of remote XML feeds is needed.

The last project is a client for Google’s Buzz social network: the current functionalities include searching by keyword, and retrieving of Buzzes of a single user. Many more features are under development: feel free to take a look and integrate yours

As these are open source projects, everyone is invited to dig into the code and to contribute to the them: just join the project, and start experimenting! To start, visit Forum Nokia Projects.

For this reason, It’s a pleasure to see Dr. Jukka releasing a new set of UI components, specifically intended for S60 touch devices.

Here is the full list of components:

• Accordion
• Busy
• Button
• Carousel
• Checkbox
• LightBox
• Optionsbox
• ProgressBar
• Radiobox
• Rating
• TextLabel
• ToggleSwitch
• ToggleSwitch list

Components’ documentation is available on Forum Nokia Wiki, and you can also preview the components online, by using this page.

Good job Jukka!

Changes in this last release include:

• Samples and packaging information for Platform Services 2.0
• Guidelines and how-to’s for home-screen widgets
• Optimization of performances and battery life

If you’re a mobile Web developer, check it out!

For single-person and small developer teams, the whole Symbian process could be a not suitable option. For this reason, I’ve looked for an alternative deployment approach that could bypass this process. The approach presented here is based on a delayed deploy model, meaning that the API Bridge engine is not deployed with your application, but in a successive moment: actually, it is deployed only when the application needs it.

How this can be achieved? Basically, there are 2 possible options to implement this model, and they’re based on:

• AppManager API from Platform Services
• Local HTTP calls

Using the AppManager API to check API Bridge

If the target devices support Platform Services, the AppManager API can be used to retrieve the list of installed applications, and so to check if API Bridge is installed on the device itself.

The code below shows how this can be achieved by using JavaScript in a WRT widget. The same approach can be easily ported to ActionScript, and so used in a Flash Lite application.

var apiBridgeFound = false;
var apiBridgeCheckError = null;
 
var so = device.getServiceObject("Service.AppManager", "IAppManager");
 
var criteria = new Object();
criteria.Type = 'Application';
 
var result = so.IAppManager.GetList(criteria);
 
if(result.ErrorCode == 0)
{
	var iterator = result.ReturnValue;
 
	var application;
 
	while((application = iterator.getNext()) != undefined)
	{
		if(application.Uid == '0x20023710')
		{
			apiBridgeFound = true;
 
			break;
		}
	}
}
else
{
	apiBridgeCheckError = result.ErrorMessage;
}

The code works by checking the UID of all the installed applications, comparing them with the API Bridge UID (0×20023710). This code snipped defined 2 variables, that can be used to check for API Bridge availability:

• apiBridgeFound: if true, it means that the API Bridge engine is installed on the device. If false, the API Bridge engine is not installed.
• apiBridgeCheckError: if not null, it means that there was an error while checking for API Bridge, due to the AppManager API. In this case, the application cannot actually know if the API Bridge engine is installed or not.

So, once these 2 variable have been set, the application can perform the most appropriate operation, based on the AppManager call result. The code snippet below shows a possible implementation:

if(apiBridgeCheckError != null)
{
	alert("There was an error! " + apiBridgeCheckError);
}
else if(!apiBridgeFound)
{
	if(confirm("You have to install API Bridge to continue, press OK to download it"))
	{
		widget.openURL('http://www.yourserver.com/APIBridge_v1_1.sis');
	}
}
else
{
	alert("API Bridge is already installed on the device!");
}

And below you can see this code running on a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

Using local HTTP calls to check API Bridge

Since the API Bridge engine works as a local HTTP server running on the mobile phone, the other possible approach is to make an HTTP request, and to check if any response from API Bridge comes.

Note: this approach works by using the API Bridge default port (9080). There are no guarantees that this port number is fixed, and that it will not be changed in future API Bridge releases. For this reason, my advice would be to use this second approach only when Platform Services are not available.

The code below shows how to make a request to the local API Bridge HTTP server, and how to check if it’s running or not: if it is running, the response status of the XMLHttpRequest object has to be different than zero.

function pollApiBridgeServer(_callback)
{
	var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
 
	request.open("GET", "http://127.0.0.1:9080", true );
 
	request.send(null);
 
	request.onreadystatechange = function()
	{
		if( request.readyState == 4)
		{
			if(request.status != 0)
			{
				_callback(true);
			}
			else
			{
				_callback(false);
			}
		}
	}
}

The approach described here can be used also when using API Bridge from other languages, as Flash Lite or Java ME. Anyway, when working with Flash Lite, in the scenario where API Bridge is not yet installed, you will incur in the typical (and horrible) error popups, that will inform you (and so the user) that the network call failed.

How to use the code above? First, define a callback:

function pollApiBridgeCallback(apiBridgeInstalled)
{
	if(apiBridgeInstalled)
	{
		alert("API Bridge is already installed on the device");
	}
	else
	{
		if(confirm("You have to install API Bridge to continue, press OK to download it"))
		{
			widget.openURL('http://www.yourserver.com/APIBridge_v1_1.sis');
		}
	}
}

Then, just call the pollApiBridgeServer() method by passing a reference to this callback:

pollApiBridgeServer(pollApiBridgeCallback);

Pros and cons

Using one of the two approaches discussed above as some important advantages over the standard API Bridge deployment mechanism:

• You don’t have to build a SIS package
• You don’t have to sign your application to distribute it
• You will save money

On the other side, these approaches have the main drawback on the user-experience side, since your users could be asked to download and install an additional component when they start to use your application. Anyway, this event will happen only once at most, so it could be considered reasonable in most scenarios.

Start downloading the new release from Forum Nokia: API Bridge release 1.1.

Then, check out this informative Wiki articles, that explain how to build a new, custom plugin and how to use it from JavaScript:

• APIBridge Plug-in API
• Creating APIBridge JavaScript Binding Code

For more information about API Bridge, check out its Forum Nokia page.

Basically, when you want to extend the functionalities of a WRT widget or a Flash Lite application, you have two options:

• Platform Services
• API Bridge

Both of them provide a set of tools and libraries that, added to your applications, allow them to access more functionalities than the ones that each technology naively supports.

So, which approach is the best one? It’s not easy to give a unique answer to this question, so let’s go into details.

Ease of use

The Platform Services library is available from more time, and there’s a well established set of resources and code examples that will help you to quickly get your functionalities ready and running.The primary source of information is Forum Nokia Library, that has a detailed references of APIs and useful sample code. Then, also Forum Nokia Wiki provides an extensive set of examples that cover all the possible usage scenarios. Even if there is some little parts where this information could be improved, you shouldn’t get much in trouble when using Platform Services in your application.

API Bridge is a fresher technology, released on November 2009, and so it’s harder to find complete documentation and usage examples. Anyway, Forum Nokia released a set of libraries for various platforms (Flash Lite, Web Runtime and Java ME) that will definitely help in starting to use API Bridge.

Device support

Platform Services are fully supported starting from S60 5th edition devices, but are also compatible with a subset of S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2 devices: the full list of supported devices is available here: Web Runtime 1.1 compatible devices. This means that you can use them only on the touch screen Nokia devices.

On the other side, API Bridge can work on all devices starting from S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 onwards, so meaning:

• S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1
• S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2
• S60 5th edition

Available features

Current Platform Services (version 1.0) allow to access a wide set of features:

• Application Management
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Landmarks
• Location
• Logging
• Media Management
• Messaging
• Sensors
• System Information

It is currently available also a beta release of Platform Services 2.0, that adds to this features’ set also the access to the device camera.

API Bridge, instead, has a more limited set of functionalities, currently including:

• Capture of photos, videos and audio streams
• Files uploading
• Files reading
• Image resizing
• Location
• Logging
• Media Management

Supported technologies

Platform Services are currently available for Flash Lite and Web Runtime applications.

API Bridge libraries have been released for Flash Lite, Web Runtime and Java ME. Generally speaking, the API Bridge engine, working as a local HTTP server running on the device, is accessible from all technologies.

Overall considerations

The current implementation of Platform Services and API Bridge don’t allow to decide which approach is the best one, and there is no need to do it anyway. Right now, if you’re working in Flash Lite or Web Runtime, and as long as your set of target devices support them, you can benefit of both technologies, including the two libraries in your application.

Talking about future perspectives of both approaches, we can see both of them evolving in more mature products.

Platform Services 2.0 is already available as a beta release, so you can already start experimenting with the new APIs and features, including the access to the device camera. On the other side, API Bridge promises to allow everyone to create custom plugins, through the ECOM interface, as reported on Forum Nokia Blogs.

Concluding, Platform Services, with the already mature and features-rich library, surely represents a simpler approach for developers who don’t want to deal with Symbian building and packaging, while API Bridge, with its plugin architecture becoming mature and open to developers, could definitely end up to be the best ally to allow widgets and Flash Lite apps access more and more features.

In this article I’ll try to explain how to setup and develop a Flash Lite application that uses APIBridge, by using FDT.

If you want to know how to configure FDT (and Eclipse) to properly develop Flash Lite application, you should read this article: Web Runtime and Flash Lite integrated development on Eclipse.

Setup the project in FDT

First of all, you need to download the API Bridge FlashLite library from Forum Nokia: API Bridge Flash Lite Library and Sample Code. The package also contains useful sample code that will definitely help.

Now, create a new Flash Lite project within Eclipse.

Then, open up the API Bridge package downloaded from Forum Nokia, and copy the “si/” folder to the “src/” folder of your Flash Lite project.

Once copied, you should notice some errors in your FDT project, as shown in the picture below.

These errors are due to the “mx.*” package, that is not included in the ActionScript classes shipped with FDT. To solve this error, you have to tell FDT where to find these classes.

First, let’s copy these classes from the Flash IDE to a dedicated folder:

1. Create a folder called “mx_package/” somewhere on your machine
2. Go into “<FLASH_IDE_PATH>\en\First Run\Classes\” folder
3. Copy the “mx/” folder inside the “mx_package/” folder created above

Now, configure FDT:

1. Go into “Window” -> “Preferences” -> “FDT” -> “Core Libraries”, open the “Path variables” panel and select “New…”
2. Enter “MX_PACKAGE” as name, and select the “mx_package/” created above as folder
3. Once done, your Core Libraries should look similar to the picture below

Now, what remains to do is to add the MX library to the Flash Lite project. Go into the project’s properties and, in the “FDT Build Path” section, select “Add Linked Library…” -> “Add…” and pick “MX_PACKAGE”.

Done this, all the errors should have gone away from the project. Hurrah!

Patching the mx.utils.Delegate class

The MTASC compiler is stricter than the compiler you can find within the Flash IDE. For this reason, the mx.utils.Delegate class needs to be slightly modified in order to make it properly compile with MTASC.

Specifically, the ‘create()’ function needs to be adjusted as follows:

static function create(obj:Object, func:Function):Function
{
	var f = function()
	{
		var target = arguments.callee.target;
		var func2 = arguments.callee.func;
		return func2.apply(target, arguments);
	};
	f.target = obj;
	f.func = func;
	return f;
}

Patching the si.apibridge.APIBridge class

For the same reasons explained above, also the si.apibridge.APIBridge class needs to be patched to work with MTASC.  To do this, open APIBridge.as and replace the setPort() function with this one:

	private function setPort(): Void
	{
		var portVars:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
 
		portVars.load( portPath );
 
		var pushErrorDelegate : Function = Delegate.create(this, pushError);
 
		portVars.onLoad = function( success )
		{
			if (success)
			{
				var portData:String = portVars.toString();
				portData = portData.substr(0,portData.indexOf("="));
				trace(portData);
				APIBridge.BridgeURL += portData; 
 
			}
			else
			{
				trace("Error loading Port");// The data didn't load
				pushErrorDelegate("1","Error loading port, using default 9080");
				APIBridge.BridgeURL += "9080";
			}
 
		}
	}

Once done, just create a new MTASC launch configuration and check that the project properly compiles. If it doesn’t, re-check the steps above.

Using API Bridge Call Log service in Flash Lite

Now, we’ll see how to use an API Bridge service, the Call Log one, in Flash Lite.

First, let’s create the main project’s class. In this example I’ll call it ‘MainMovie’.

import com.jappit.flashlite.apibridgetest.Logger;
import com.jappit.flashlite.apibridgetest.CallLogRetriever;
 
class com.jappit.flashlite.apibridgetest.MainMovie
{
	public static function main(container : MovieClip) : Void
	{
		Stage.align = "TL";
		Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
		container.createTextField("tf", 1, 0, 0, 360, 500);
		var textField : TextField = container["tf"];
	}
}

The TextField instance will be used to show the events retrieved from the device logs. Now, let’s create a separate class, EventsLogRetriever, that will take care of calling APIBridge, and of managing its responses. Its constructor is defined to accept a TextField as argument, and it will use it to print out the API Bridge response.

import mx.utils.Delegate;
import si.apibridge.*;
 
class com.jappit.flashlite.apibridgetest.EventsLogRetriever
{
	private var textField : TextField;
 
	public function EventsLogRetriever(_textField : TextField)
	{
		this.textField = _textField;
	}

Now, it’s time to define the method that will call the API Bridge engine. Each call to an API Bridge interface must typically define two handlers: a success and a failure handler. The error handler receives a single argument, containing the data of the occurred error. About the success handler, it receives three arguments:

1. the transaction ID, that must be used to uniquely identify the transaction that is calling the handler (useful in scenarios where multiple transactions are active concurrently)
2. the event ID, that identify the state of the event
3. an object containing data returned by the API Bridge call

Said that, the EventsLogRetriever class will end up containing these 3 methods:

public function retrieveEvents() : Void
{
}
public function onApiError(outParam : Object) : Void
{
}
public function onApiSuccess(transactionID:Number, eventID:String, outParam:Object)
{
}

Starting with the retrieveEvents() method, it has to:

• instantiate APIBridge, passing a reference to the error handler as argument
• grab a reference to the Logging service
• define which kind of log events it wants to retrieve
• call the GetList() service method

So, the retrieveEvents() can be implemented as follows:

public function retrieveEvents() : Void
{
	var _onApiError : Function = Delegate.create(this, onApiError);
	var _onApiSuccess : Function = Delegate.create(this, onApiSuccess);
 
	var bridge:APIBridge = new APIBridge(_onApiError);
 
	var logging = bridge.Service("Service.Logging", "IDataSource");
 
	textField.text  = "Retrieving phone numbers ..." + APIBridge.BridgeURL;
 
	var filter = {EventType:0};
	var inParams = {Type:"Log", Filter:filter};
 
	logging.GetList(inParams, _onApiSuccess);
}

Coming to the error handler, let’s just implement it to make it show the returned error data:

public function onApiError(outParam : Object) : Void
{
	textField.text  = "APIBridge error " + outParam.ErrorCode + " " + outParam.ErrorMessage;
}

Now, the success handler. First, it has to check if the returned API Bridge data contains an error, and this can be done with the same logic used in the error handler above. If no errors are detected, the handler can retrieve the actual returned data, contained in outParam.ReturnValue, and loop all the returned log events.

public function onApiSuccess(transactionID : Number, eventID : String, outParam : Object)
{
	textField.text = "Results: " + outParam.ReturnValue.length + "\n" ;
 
	if (outParam.ErrorCode != 0)
	{
		textField.text = "Error: " + outParam.ErrorCode + ", " + outParam.ErrorMessage;
		return;
	}
	else
	{
		var outList = outParam.ReturnValue;
		var outputEntry = null;
		do
		{
			outputEntry = outList.next();
 
			if (null != outputEntry)
			{
				textField.text += outputEntry.Direction + ": " +
					outputEntry.Description + ", " +
					outputEntry.PhoneNumber;
 
				textField.text += "\n";
			}
			else
			{
				break;
			}
		}
		while (true);
	}
}

Done this, the EventsLogRetriever is ready to be used, and to do this it’ll be enough to add this two lines to the static() method of the MainMovie class:

var retriever : EventsLogRetriever = new EventsLogRetriever(textField);
 
retriever.retrieveEvents();

That’s all!

Build and deploy

Once the Flash Lite app is ready, just build it using the MTASC launch configuration created before.

Now the tough part: to make the whole thing work, it is necessary to package the Flash Lite application with the API Bridge engine. To do this, there are various options:

1. Build a Flash Lite launcher in Symbian C++. These Forum Nokia Wiki articles explain how this can be done:
   • How to make Flash launcher with Symbian C++
   • Create Flash Applications with Carbide.c++
2. Package the Flash Lite application in a WRT widget, and then package it with the API Bridge engine. This approach is described in these articles:
   • How to use FDT and Aptana to create a Flash Lite enabled WRT widget: explains how to package Flash Lite in a WRT widget
   • Build your first Web Runtime widget with APIBridge: explains how to package a WRT widget with the API Bridge engine

Both the approaches can equally work, so feel free to choose the one you prefer

Once deployed on a device, just run it, and you should see this:

1) The Flash Lite app starts, and the API Engine is initialized

2) The API Bridge engine asks the user for permission to access sensitive data

3) And here are the retrieved log events!

First of all, be sure to have installed all the required Eclipse plugins, as described here.

Create a new Web Runtime widget

To create a Web Runtime widget, just open up the “New Project” wizard and select the “New Nokia Web Runtime Widget”.

The wizard will now let you choose from some predefined widget templates. In this article, it is enough to start with an empty widget.

And finally enter the name and identifier of your new widget. The identifier has to be a string in the reverse domain format, and will uniquely identify your own widget.

Once created, the widget’s structure should be the one shown below.

Create the Flash Lite content

First, create a new Flash Lite project by using the “New Flash Project” template. Then, create the project’s main class. One example is the MainMovie class shown below:

class com.jappit.flashlitetest1.MainMovie
{
	public function MainMovie()
	{
	}
 
	public static function main(container : MovieClip) : Void
	{
		Stage.align = "TL";
		Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
		container.createTextField("tf", 1, 0, 0, 100, 100);
		var tf : TextField = container["tf"];
		tf.text = "I'm the Flash Lite content!";
	}
}

Changing the MTASC launch configuration

Now, the MTASC command has to be changed a bit, so that the generated SWF will automatically end up in the Web Runtime widget project’s folder.

To do this, open up the MTASC launch configuration, and change the generated SWF path to be a subpath of your widget’s main folder. You can see an example of the command in the picture below.

Now, run the project launch configuration, and check the widget’s folder: the SWF generated by MTASC should be there, together with the other widget’s files.

Including the SWF content in your widget

Forum Nokia Wiki has a comprehensive article explaining the possible ways of integrating Flash content into a Web Runtime widget. In this article the first described approach, the same used on the Web, is implemented.

So, take the widget’s index.html file, and add this HTML code:

<object id="MyFlash" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="200" height="200" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">
	<param name="align" value="middle" />
	<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
	<param name="loop" value="false" />
	<param name="menu" value="false" />
	<param name="quality" value="high" />
	<param name="wmode" value="opaque" />
	<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
	<param name="src" value="default_mtasc.swf" />
	<param name="name" value="Finish" />
	<embed id="MyFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200" height="200" src="default_mtasc.swf" name="Finish" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="opaque" quality="high" menu="false" loop="false" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" align="middle"></embed>
</object>

Packaging and deploying

If all went well, all is ready to be packaged and deployed.

Right click the project, choose “Package widget”, deploy and enjoy!

You can download the widget built in this article here: Flash Lite enabled WRT sample widget.

For this reason, in this article I’ll try to explain how to setup a single environment that may allow development on both technologies, so leveraging the development phase from continuous swaps between different IDEs, and by boosting it all thanks to the powerful Eclipse platform.

Installing Eclipse and plugins

First of all, download Eclipse. I currently use version 3.5 on my own machine, but other versions should work as well.

Once downloaded, proceed installing the following plugins:

1. Aptana plugin for Eclipse: http://www.aptana.org/studio/plugin
2. Web Runtime plugin for Aptana: http://tools.ext.nokia.com/wrt/prod/aptana/plugin/
3. FDT plugin for Eclipse: http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/developer-tools/fdt-3/download/

After you’ve installed the above plugins, you’ll notice two new project types in your Eclipse project wizard: Flash and Nokia Web Runtime projects.

Basically, these 3 plugins are all you need to start developing both Web Runtime and Flash Lite applications. Anyway, FDT needs some further configuration steps to properly work with Flash Lite apps.

Configure the FDT plugin

FDT needs to know how to compile your Flash Lite projects. You basically have two choices: use the Adobe Flash IDE, or use MTASC.

• The first choice is available if you have already installed a copy of a Flash IDE, and can be configured by going into the “Window” -> “Preferences” -> “FDT” -> “Tools” -> “Flash” settings panel. Once there, just enter the paths of your Flash IDE and Player.

• The second one, quicker and free, needs MTASC to be installed on your machine (you can get it here), and configured in the “Window” -> “Preferences” -> “FDT” -> “Tools” -> “MTASC” panel. I actually prefer this option, as it allows you to develop Flash Lite applications also on machines where the Flash IDE is not available.

Add Flash Lite-specific classes and functions

FDT uses the standard ActionScript 2 classes to allow you to compile your Flash Lite project. Anyway, these lack some Flash Lite-specific classes and functions, as ExtendedKey and SharedObject.addListener() method, that have to be manually added, as also explained here.

To do this, go into the “<ECLIPSE_ROOT_FOLDER>\configuration\com.powerflasher.fdt.core\.config\core\as2\” folder and:

1. Create a file called “ExtendedKey.as” with this content:

   intrinsic class ExtendedKey
   {
   static var SOFT1:String = "soft1";
   static var SOFT2:String = "soft2";
   static var SOFT3:String = "soft3";
   static var SOFT4:String = "soft4";
   static var SOFT5:String = "soft5";
   static var SOFT6:String = "soft6";
   static var SOFT7:String = "soft7";
   static var SOFT8:String = "soft8";
   static var SOFT9:String = "soft9";
   static var SOFT10:String = "soft10";
   static var SOFT11:String = "soft11";
   static var SOFT12:String = "soft12";
   }

2. Open “SharedObject.as” and add these lines to the class definition:

   var scope : Object;
   static function GetMaxSize() : Number;
   static function addListener(objectName:String, notifyFunction:Function) : Void;
   static function removeListener(objectName:String) : Void;

3. Now, switch to the “<ECLIPSE_ROOT_FOLDER>\configuration\com.powerflasher.fdt.core\.config\topLevel\” folder, open TopLevel.as, and add this function definition:

   function fscommand2(command:String, parameters:Object):Void;

If you plan to use MTASC to compile your Flash Lite applications, the above changes have to be performed also to the ActionScript files used by MTASC itself. These files are typically placed in the “<MTASC_ROOT_FOLDER>\std” folder: go there and repeat the 3 steps above for ExtendedKey.as, SharedObject.as and TopLevel.as.

That’s all! Now let’s give FDT a quick test to check if all is correctly configured.

Testing the FDT configuration

Creating a new Flash Lite project is straightforward: just select “New Flash project” from the Eclipse project wizard, and then choose a name for your project. In the Project Language section, be sure to select “ActionScript 2″.

Once the project has been created, switch to the “Flash FDT” perspective by selecting “Window” -> “Open perspective” -> “Flash FDT”.

Now, create the project’s main class. The only required method to be implemented is the static main(), that has to perform all the initialization operations:

class com.jappit.flashlitetest1.MainMovie
{
  public function MainMovie()
  {
  }
 
  public static function main(container : MovieClip) : Void
  {
    Stage.align = "TL";
    Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
    container.createTextField("tf", 1, 0, 0, 100, 100);
    var tf : TextField = container["tf"];
    tf.text = "Hello World";
  }
}

Now, if the FDT configuration was properly done, you shouldn’t get any errors. So, if all is ok, open the “Run Configurations…” panel from the “Run” menu.

Under “FDT MTASC” create a new launch configuration. In the “Main” sub-panel select the main class created just above.

Then, go to the “Miscellaneous” sub-panel and check the “Start SWF after compilation” option. This way, the SWF will be immediately launched, after each build, in the Eclipse’s internal SWF viewer.

Now, all is ready to be tested: just run the created launch configuration, and enjoy your new Flash Lite app

And here’s the generated SWF running on a real device:

What’s next?

Next tutorials will focus on using both Web Runtime and FDT plugins to develop Flash Lite-enabled widgets. So, stay tuned!

The APIBridge is a Symbian C++ engine that exposes native functionalities to Web Runtime widgets. These functionalities include:

• Uploading files.
• Capturing video, image, and audio.
• Reading files.
• Resizing images.

Before starting with the following steps, you have to download APIBridge from Forum Nokia website, and unpack it to a convenient location on your machine.

Also, to compile and build the whole example, you must get one UID from your SymbianSigned account.

Step 1. Prepare your widget

The first step is to develop your own widget, and to package it into the standard WGZ format. You can develop the widget with the tools of your choice.

In this tutorial, I’ll just build a simple “Hello World” widget with the WRT Plugin for Aptana Studio. You can read a full guide about creating from scratch a simple widget on Forum Nokia Library.

Using the Aptana Wizard interface, let’s create a new “Nokia Web Runtime Widget”.

Now, let’s customize the “index.html” file with your Hello World text.

So, the test widget is ready to be packaged!

Step 2. Compiling APIBridge source code

Now, take the folder where you have unpacked APIBridge, and make a copy of its WgzInstaller folder. We’ll use this copy to create the new widget installer.

Note: to perform this step, you must already have your own UID.

Now, perform these changes:

1. Open the group\WgzInstaller.mmp file, and replace the fake UID 0×12345678 with your own
2. In the src\WgzInstaller.cpp file file, replace the KWidgetInstallerFileName with the actual filename of your packaged widget

Now all is ready to compile your source code. Go into the group\ folder and, from command line, run:

bldmake bldfiles
abld build gcce

If you don’t get any errors, the APIBridge code shoud have been correctly compiled.

Step 3. Customize and package

Now, copy your packaged widget to the content/ folder. Done this, open the /sis/WgzInstaller_template.pkg file and set the appropriate values for these properties:

• Application name
• Installation UID
• Vendor name
• .wgz file name

Since we’re building from command line, we also have to tell where makesis can actually find the WgzInstaller.exe file created in the previous step. In this tutorial, I’ve used the S60 5th edition SDK v1.0, so I’ll change this value:

“$(EPOCROOT)Epoc32\release\$(PLATFORM)\$(TARGET)\WgzInstaller.exe”

to

“\S60\devices\S60_5th_Edition_SDK_v1.0\Epoc32\release\gcce\urel\WgzInstaller.exe”

Now, let’s create the SIS file: from command prompt, go into the sis/ folder and run:

makesis WgzInstaller_template.pkg

Your output should be something like this:

Processing WgzInstaller_template.pkg...
Created  WgzInstaller_template.sis.

Step 4. Sign and deploy

Take the SIS file you’ve created in the previous step, and sign it with your own SymbianSigned certificate:

signsis WgzInstaller_template.sis WgzInstaller_template_signed.sis your_certificate.cer your_key.key your_password

Now, your widget is ready! Just send it to your Nokia device, and install. You’ll notice that, during the installation, you’ll be prompted to install both your widget and the APIBridge engine.

Below you can see the Hello World widget running in all its glory

Thanks go to Leonardo for his precious support!